Social Progress Index 2022: Social Progress Slows Down

The Social Progress Index (SPI) of 2022 has been published. The 2022 Social Progress Index® uses 12 components and 60 indicators to fully measure the social performance of 169 countries and partially measure the social performance of an additional 27 countries. The index helps us understand how people around the world live, who is left behind and how we can accelerate progress.

Results for the world 

Below is a summary of some of the overarching findings extracted from this annual index and includes four key findings: 

1. The world is at risk of a social progress recession in 2023. Overall, the world has improved, but last year only by 0.37 points, while 52 countries (31%) saw a decline in social progress. Although the world has improved since 2011 (by 5.4 points), in the past five years, since 2017, the pace of progress has slowed by almost half (2011-16 +3.44 points; 2017-22 +1 .95 points). The legacy of Covid is one of the reasons for the delay. Given the risks of climate change, economic turbulence and political change, we see a significant risk that, for the first time, social progress will decline in 2023. 
2. Decreasing rights have been the biggest brake on social progress. Since 2011 there has been a significant drop in the world score on personal rights (-5.34 .) points). 111 countries (66%) have fallen in duties since 2011. Three of those countries are in the G7 – Canada, the UK and the US. 
3. In the United Kingdom, social progress has declined since 2011 (-0.28). We see the impact of the austerity measures and Brexit showing up in every area of ​​the data from education to healthcare, to rights and tolerance. 
4. Social progress in the United States has been stagnant since 2011 (+0.06) and has been declining since 2017 (-0.56). Since 2011, the United States has been declining in 6 out of 12 components, including personal rights (-8.99) where it is ranked 46th in the world and 33rd in Inclusiveness (-7.51). The steepest declines in the past 5 year has happened. We are also seeing stagnation in nutrition and basic medical care, health and wellness and a decline in access to basic knowledge, we are likely to see the impact of Covid-19. 

For details, see 2022 Social Progress Index Executive Summary.